Owned by Joe Della Monica, who retired as a Milford police officer after 20 years, Joe's Missing Link offers turkey and chicken sausage in addition to the traditional pork links.

"It's relaxing -- therapeutic," Della Monica said of creating new flavors. "My kids don't always like it because they have to eat it all." Della Monica said he started producing sausage right out of his kitchen at home in 2009.

"Growing up Italian, when you go to the store and buy sausage, it's never how you had it as a kid from grandma," he said.

Through a lot of trial and error, and burning out three KitchenAids, Della Monica said he has got it down to a science.

"We take the pork butt and trim it of any fat, marinate it overnight in herbs for ... eight to 16 hours, then we grind it," he said. "We try and keep the meat as close to freezing as possible because it's easiest to work with, plus it's the most sanitary way."

Joe's Missing Link sausage is still produced out of Della Monica's kitchen, when he's not working for the Department of Mental Health Services as a police officer and juggling responsibilities for three teenagers.

He said while he's in the process of changing over his business from home to food truck, he can take orders by phone.

Apple and cranberry breakfast, sweet and hot Italian, broccoli rabe and Big Ray are the top selling sausage flavors, according to Della Monica.

"It's called Big Ray because my friend's father passed away and I could never make a sausage hot enough for him. Big Ray has jalapenos, habaneros, Hawaiian purple chilies and serranos," he said.

Della Monica's wife, Linda, said her favorite sausage is the Porcini mushroom. She said the real secret to Joe's Missing Link Sausage is there are no fillers, additives or preservatives.

Still, Joe Della Monica said the heart of his business lies with charity.

"That's what this whole business comes down to," he said. "We've given away more sausage than we've sold. We've probably spent $5,000 of our own money."